Daughter Of Death

• Leila Holman, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

My name is Brittany Schwarz and I am a curse. My story is one that was told, everyone knew it, even if they didn’t want to. It just wasn’t the type that people wanted to hear. That being said, let’s go back to the beginning....

Chantelle Edwards, my best friend was over at my house, we were sitting on my bed eating chips.
“You know what? Let’s do something.... something fun,” she says.
“Like what?” I reply, mouth full of chips.
“Let’s go for a drive,” she suggests, taking another handful of chips.
“Where?” I ask, finishing the bowl of ships.
“Anywhere,” she answers.
And she yanks me up and drags me to the car.

We get in and we turn the radio on, we drive and drive. Before we know it, we hit an intersection. Chantelle looks both ways before driving forward, and I laugh, I don’t know why but it comes naturally. Then, everything slows down, the memory’s a blur. I hear a scream, then another, I open my eyes and I see blood, and the body of my best friend, blood from her fore head, but not a single breath coming in or out, and everything fades away. I start to hear sirens and I groan, I hear someone call my name and my mind relaxes.

The next day at school whispers go around, faster than anything else, rumours bloom and spread. Demi, and my other friends come rushing up to me.
“Is it true? Chanelle and you got into a crash?” She speaks up. Tears in her eyes. I only nod, they’ve heard the rumours and they believe them. We go silent as we walk to the lunch room. We walk in and people stare, I go to our normal table but my friends go the other way, all except Demi. I feel a wave of betrayal over me. But I keep walking, I can already tell this is gonna be a long day.

That weekend, Demi was over at my house. We were silent for most of the day but in the afternoon, she spoke up.
“Let’s walk, “ she says. So we do. As expected it’s quiet.
“I’m sorry, for being so quiet. It really doesn’t help” she starts.
I shake my head and laugh, and she joins in. But then I hear a noise, a motorbike.
Then everything goes fast, a shriek I hear water splash and before I realise, I’m in the water. I arise to the top of the water. I breath in and then it hits me Demi hasn’t come up. And that strange laugh come out of my mouth. But one things different, the guy gets off his motor bike, he turns to me and says, “ Brittany, your the daughter of Death,” and it makes sense.